Hayes v. Skywest Airlines, Inc

Filing 19

STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER by Magistrate Judge Nina Y. Wang on 12/28/15. (bsimm, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Civil Action No. 1:15-cv-2015-REB-NYW
JOHN HAYES,
Plaintiff
v.
SKYWEST AIRLINES, INC.,
Defendant.
[PROPOSED] STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER
Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c), upon a showing of good cause in support of the entry of
Stipulated Protective Order to protect the discovery and dissemination of trade secrets or other
confidential research, development, personnel or commercial information and information that
will improperly annoy, embarrass, or oppress any party, witness, or person in this case,
IT IS ORDERED:
1.

This Stipulated Protective Order shall apply to all documents, materials and
information, including without limitation, documents produced, answers to
interrogatories, responses to requests for admission, deposition and other information
disclosed pursuant to the disclosure or discovery duties created by the Federal Rules
of Civil Procedure.

2.

As used in this Stipulated Protective Order, “document” is defined as provided in
Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(a)(1)(A). A draft or non-identical copy is a separate document
within the meaning of this term.

EMPLOY/1252731.1

3.

Information designated “Confidential” shall be information that implicates common
law and/or statutory privacy interests. Confidential Information may also include
private financial, employment, or medical information of Plaintiff John Hayes
(“Plaintiff”), or confidential and proprietary business information about Defendant
SkyWest Airlines, Inc. (“Defendant”), and Confidential Information about
Defendant’s employees, contained in medical records, employee personnel files,
and/or portions of documents that contain information generally considered to be
confidential such as social security numbers, dates of birth, and other personal
identifying information.

4.

The parties recognize that Confidential Information may include, but is not limited to,
sensitive and non-public information and records concerning compensation,
Defendant’s employees’ duties and performance, Defendant’s employees’ discipline
and promotions, personnel decisions, and other documents related to the Defendant’s
employees and Plaintiff’s employment with Defendant.

5.

Designation of information as Confidential shall not affect its discoverability.

6.

As a condition of designating documents for confidential treatment, the documents
must be reviewed by a party’s legal counsel and a good faith determination must be
made that the documents are entitled to protection.

7.

A party designating documents as Confidential Information may do so by marking
such material with the legend Confidential.

8.

A party may object to the designation of particular Confidential Information by
giving written notice to the party that designated the disputed information and all

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other parties to the civil action through their attorneys of record. The written notice
shall identify the information to which the objection is made. If the parties cannot
resolve the objection within ten (10) business days after the time the notice is
received, it shall be the obligation of the party designating the information as
Confidential to file an appropriate motion requesting that the Court determine
whether the disputed information shall be treated as confidential under the terms of
this Stipulated Protective Order.

All disputed information shall be treated as

Confidential until the Court rules on the motion. If the designating party fails to file
such a motion within the prescribed time, the disputed information shall lose its
designation as Confidential and shall not thereafter be treated as Confidential in
accordance with this Stipulated Protective Order. In connection with a motion filed
under this provision, the party designating the information as Confidential
Information shall bear the burden of establishing that good cause exists for the
disputed information to be treated as Confidential Information. Any designation of
Confidentiality or challenge of a designation of Confidentiality shall be governed by
Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1).
9.

Whenever a deposition involves the disclosure of Confidential Information, the
deposition or portions thereof shall be designated as Confidential and shall be subject
to the provisions of this Protective Order. Such designation shall be made on the
record during the deposition whenever possible, but a party may designate portions of
depositions as Confidential after transcription, provided written notice is promptly

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given to all counsel of record within thirty (30) days after notice by the court reporter
of the completion of the transcript.
10.

Confidential documents, materials, and information (collectively, the “Confidential
Information”) shall not be disclosed or used for any purpose except the preparation
and trial of this case.

11.

If a Party desires to use Confidential Information in a motion or, at a pretrial hearing,
said Party must file a motion to restrict access, pursuant to D.C.COLO.L.Civ.R
7.2(c), prior to filing the Confidential Information with the Court. If a Party desires
to use Confidential Information at trial, said Party shall specifically identify the
Confidential Information that it/they intend to introduce at trial in the Final Pretrial
Order, pursuant to D.C.COLO.L.Civ.R 16.3. Nothing in this Order may be construed
as an order to restrict any information or document.

12.

All Confidential Information designated “Confidential” may be reviewed only by the
following persons:
a. the respective parties’ legal counsel working on this case;
b. persons regularly employed or associated with the respective parties’ legal
counsel whose assistance is required by said attorneys in the preparation of the
case, at trial, or at other proceedings in this case;
c. the parties, including Plaintiff’s and Defendant’s representative(s) and any
designated advisory witnesses who are directly assisting said attorneys in the
preparation of this case;

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d. expert witnesses and consultants retained in connection with this proceeding,
to the extent such disclosure is necessary for preparation, trial, or other
proceedings in this case;
e. the Court and its employees in any proceeding herein;
f. stenographic or videographer reporters who are engaged in proceedings
necessarily incident to the conduct of this action;
g. deponents, witnesses, or potential witnesses during the course of their
testimony and in preparation for testimony; and
h. other persons by written agreement of the parties.
13.

Before the parties or their counsel may disclose any Confidential Information to
persons contemplated by Subparagraphs 11(d), 11(g), and 11(h) of this Stipulated
Protective Order, other than a witness during his or her testimony, such person shall
be provided a copy of this Stipulated Protective Order and obtain from such person a
written acknowledgment stating that he or she has read the Stipulated Protective
Order and agrees to be bound by its provisions. All such acknowledgments shall be
retained by counsel and shall be subject to an in camera review by the Court if
opposing counsel demonstrates good cause for review. In the event any counsel of
record determines that persons other than those referenced in Paragraph 11 above
have a need to review any Confidential Information, written authorization of the party
who produced the Confidential Information must be obtained in advance of such
disclosure.

The disclosing counsel will need to follow the notice and

acknowledgment procedure set forth in this paragraph, prior to disclosing

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Confidential Information to a third-party that is not referenced in Paragraph 11 above.
Should the party who produced the Confidential Information refuse such
authorization, counsel may apply to the Court for authorization.
14.

The Court expressly directs that all litigants, their agents, employees, counsel of
record, and said counsel’s paralegals, employees, and associates are precluded from
producing or providing copies of any documents or materials subject to this
Stipulated Protective Order to any print, electronic, or news media representatives,
employees, or agents and are prohibited from disclosing any information contained in
such documents to those individuals except information lawfully acquired
independently of those documents.

15.

Any item or information inadvertently furnished by the producing party or nonparty
during the course of this litigation without designation of Confidential may
nevertheless subsequently be designated as Confidential Information under this
Order, but only if counsel for the producing party provides prompt written notice to
all receiving parties of the inadvertent production within twenty (20) days after the
production and requests that the receiving parties thereafter treat such information as
Confidential Information under this Order. No disclosures of such inadvertently
produced information shall be deemed to violate this Order if the disclosure is made
prior to the receipt of notice of the producing Party’s designation of the information
as Confidential Information.

16.

The terms of this Protective Order shall survive the termination of this action, and all
protections of this Protective Order shall remain in full effect in perpetuity. Within

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thirty (30) days after the conclusion of this litigation, including any appeals, unless
other arrangements are agreed upon, each document and copies thereof which have
been designated as Confidential shall be stored by counsel in a manner which will
preclude others, including the parties and their agents (other than undersigned
counsel), from obtaining such documents.

Moreover, copies of all deposition

transcripts referring to the Confidential documents shall be sealed by counsel. The
parties will continue to be bound by the terms of this Protective Order with respect to
any Confidential document or deposition transcript referring to Confidential
documents stored by counsel after the conclusion of this litigation.
17.

Nothing in this Protective Order may be taken or construed as a ruling or statement
concerning the admissibility of any documents or information in this action.

18.

Nothing in this Protective Order precludes a party from making any use of documents
that were lawfully in its possession at the beginning of this lawsuit.

19.

The parties shall have the right to seek modification of this Order from the Court
upon showing of good cause.

DATED this 28th day of December, 2015.
BY THE COURT:

s/ Nina Y. Wang
Nina Y. Wang
United States Magistrate Judge

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APPROVED AS TO FORM:

/s/Paul Maxon
Paul Maxon
The Law Office of Paul Maxon
4450 Arapahoe Ave.
Boulder, CO 80301
[phone]
Attorney for Plaintiff
John Hayes

s/ Vance O. Knapp
Vance O. Knapp
Sherman & Howard L.L.C.
633 Seventeenth Street, Suite 3000
Denver, CO 80202
[phone]
[phone] (fax)
[e-mail]
Attorneys for Defendant
SkyWest Airlines, Inc.

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